Recovering the track after losing it

It is a fact of life that the dog will, on occasion, completely lose the track. When this occurs in competition, the experience is nerve‑wracking for the handler, as he watches his dog cast for the track and listens behind him for the blast on the judge’s whistle that will tell him that his day of competition is over. Much of the stress of having the dog go wide of the track can be reduced if we know that the dog has a strategy for recovering it.

Losing the track is expensive in terms of points, especially if the dog has to cast across a wide area to refind it. But, if it does recover the track and follow it out to the end, the judge will take note of its persistence and, during his critique, comment favorably on the dog’s ability to work independently.

We begin teaching the dog by using a heavily baited straight track. Somewhere along it, the handler simply takes a giant step off to the right or the left and then continues parallel to his original path, again baiting each footstep as he goes.

When the dog comes down the first leg of the track to the dead end, it will indicate loss of track, and then begin to cast about. The baits on the second, parallel leg will help it to locate it easily. In addition, the handler stays close by its side to keep it from circling or casting too far back and forth. Ideally, the animal will search slowly and carefully, so that it covers the area immediately about it very efficiently and without a great deal of wasted movement that will cost it points in the trial and possibly get it even more lost than it was originally.

After the dog has learned to search efficiently, the handler gradually reduces the amount of bait on both legs of this “step‑over” track. It is absolutely essential that the handler know exactly where both legs begin and end. Therefore, he should always lay his own step‑overs, rather than employ a tracklayer.

One of the most useful benefits of this type of proofing is that the dog will not become stressed or anxious when it loses the track during a trial, because rather than being punished for its error, it has learned a way to rectify it.